Honasan,Tesda chief next to be charged

SEN. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Director General Joel Villanueva are now officially among the respondents in the third batch of incumbent and former lawmakers who will be charged in connection with the priority development assistance fund (PDAF) or pork barrel scam.

Pork barrel scam witnesses Benhur Luy and Merlina Sunas implicated the two officials, along with several former and incumbent lawmakers, in their signed affidavits that are now being evaluated by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“Luy and Sunas have already signed and submitted their affidavits and the DOJ is now evaluating [them]to determine whether… the charges can stand in court,” Luy’s lawyer, Raji Mendoza, told The Manila Times on Sunday.

Once probable cause is established, the DOJ will file the case at the Office of the Ombudsman, the same way it did in filing the first two batches of pork barrel cases.

The respondents face charges of malversation of public funds, not plunder, because the amount involved is less than P50 million.

Honasan allegedly allocated P15 million of his PDAF to the bogus non-government organization (NGO) Agri and Economic Program for Farmers Foundation Inc. that was put up by Janet Lim-Napoles.

On the other hand, Villanueva, former Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption party-list representative, allegedly allocated P4.3 million of his pork barrel to the Masaganang Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc., also an NGO controlled by Napoles.

The affidavits of the witnesses are backed by transaction records and audit reports of the Commission on Audit from 2007 to 2009.

Villanueva is the second ally of President Benigno Aquino 3rd who was directly implicated in the PDAF misuse. The first was former Customs chief Rufino Rozzano Biazon, who was included in the second batch of charges filed by the DOJ. Charged along with Biazon were seven congressmen; Alan Javellana, former president of the National Agribusiness Corp.; Antonio Ortiz, former director general of the Technology Resource Center; and Dennis Cunanan, former TRC deputy director general.

Honasan and Villanueva belied the accusations.

Honasan maintained that he was not the one who chose where his PDAF was to be allocated from 2007 to 2009 while the Tesda chief expressed readiness to face the charges. Villanueva said he was confident that he would be cleared.

Conducting the review and evaluation of the affidavits of Luy, Sunas and other witnesses are Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Justice Undersecretary Jose Justiniano, National Bureau of Investigation Director Virgilio Mendez and NBI Special Task Force chief Rolando Argabioso.

In the first batch of PDAF complaints, plunder and graft charges were filed against senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, among several others.

CIBAC party-list of Joel Villanueva of TESDA stands for Citizens Battle Against Corruption. Mahiya ka naman sa followers ng tatay mo. I think you should take a leave of absent from your post as TESDA chief or you might as well resign. Ruffy Biazon resign his position as BOC chief. At least Ruffy doesn’t have JIL that preaches the word of GOD not like you, you should practiced what your father is preaching. Shame on you! Joel.

The Flipino public perception of this is that because the entire PDAF porkbarrel JLNapoles scam case has been so muddled, no one but the politicians who are enemies of the Liberal Party Pres. Aquino Sen-Pres Drilon Sec. Abad Sec. Mar Roxas etc. will be really prosecuted and end up being persecuted.

But in the outside world of big business and governments, even if they also know the truth about the Philippines, they will talk about these new names of wellknown politicians being indicted as proof of how great the Aquino regime is.

That’s because they are eager to make Asean countries their money-making playground and that, in turn, is because the US, Japan, W. Europe, China, Latin America, etc. are all in a state of mediocre economic growth or even decline.

It is so obvious why our politicians spend millions of pesos when they will only earn less monthly salary which if we total for their whole term is a fraction less than what they spent during the election. They are after the pork barrel or PDAF that are allocated for their projects. If all of these politicians implicated are found guilty, they should be ordered to return the money that they stole from the coffers of the government and must serve sentences as punishment of their actions irregardless of political affiliations. Enough is enough and stop corruption once and for all! Mahiya naman kayong gumagawa ng mga kabaluktutan hinalal kayo upang maglingkod hindi magnakaw.

Why 2 only? Is the administration now very slow in building up cases against these Pork thieves? When the PNoy administration did Renato Corona in, they were so quick in producing fake and fabricated evidence, hearsays made truth, bribe money to assure that Corona cannot escape. Wondering this piece-meal bases in filing cases is deliberate as part of the admins plan to foot-drag the proceedings.

And this is another modus operandi of this President , accusing others of muddling the PDAF scam issues when in fact he also creates scenarios to discredit Janet Lim Napoles list , and Lacson joined him to create confusion same way with De Lima ” I will serve at the pleasure of the President” , pretending they can be trusted . .Sobra na ang kakapalan .Wala ng maniniwala sa inyo.

As I have been saying all along, Philippine justice has been set up as a self-serving government monopoly under the exclusive control of powerful public officials and politicians led by the President.

It is not far fetched that some cover-up will happen in the prosecution of guilty participants in this pork barrel scam. The beneficiaries of this monopoly, if ever they will be indicted or punished would be a mere slap on the wrist at best or none at all.

To dismantle this self-serving government monopoly, it is necessary that we, the people, approve the proposed National Jury Law Initiative. Its proponents are now in the process of complying with the requirements of Republic Act 6735 to have the same set its election schedule by the COMELEC.

Most of us Filipinos do not realize that the basic cause of government corruption is this self-serving government monopoly of justice which is an exclusive club of powerful public officials and their lawyers. The basic solution to this basic cause is the adoption of the Jury System in which the common people, like you and me, will be empowered to have a deciding voice in justice through their, and your, secret jury ballot in court under the supervision and protection by presiding judges of the court.